Epilogue
RYDER
One year later
Ryder woke up with a start. Something wasn’t right. He had one warm body underneath him, sticky and sweet-smelling—Ryder didn’t have to open his eyes to know it was Ash. But that was only one.
So where was Spencer?
Ryder rose onto his hands and peered around the dark room. Spencer wasn’t in the bed or here in the nest. He wasn’t in the bedroom at all.
Ryder frowned. Ash and Spencer both knew he didn’t like them leaving the nest during his rut without him knowing. Then again, judging by the relatively clear head and lack of possessive rage at finding one of his mates gone, Ryder’s rut had probably ended sometime during the night.
Still.
Ryder disengaged himself gently from Ash’s sleeping form and padded naked toward the kitchen. He found Spencer there, equally naked and looking … thoroughly claimed, which Ryder tried and failed not to be too pleased about.
Spencer’s dark hair was wild and practically matted, and he had love bites around his shoulders and collarbone. He clearly hadn’t showered yet, since he still smelled like the three of them combined, plus the familiar musk of dried fluids and rough sex.
Ryder’s dick twitched. He ignored it, partly due to exhaustion, and partly because Spencer also looked half dead and asleep on his feet, maybe seconds away from collapsing.
Which was part of why he wasn’t supposed to leave the nest without Ryder—namely, that ruts were harder on Spencer.
Sure, his body responded beautifully to Ryder’s incessant demands, but Spencer didn’t have any omega hormones to give him extra energy and strength.
He had to rely on his own alpha stamina, which left him exhausted and—as evidenced by his determined searching through the kitchen cabinets—hungry as hell.
And he still hadn’t noticed Ryder’s entrance.
“Baby,” Ryder called, his voice low and hoarse from a weekend of grunts and moans. “Back to bed.”
Spencer turned and blinked at him, bleary-eyed. His kiss-reddened lips formed into a half pout. “Hungry.”
Ryder shuffled forward and wrapped an arm around Spencer’s waist, taking some of his weight. “I have protein bars by the nest, remember?”
Spencer only blinked some more.
“Go back and sleep,” Ryder commanded gently. “I’ll make us a real breakfast.”
That seemed to register, and Spencer let the rest of his weight fall against Ryder as he shoved his head into Ryder’s neck with a sigh. “You will?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Tha’s good,” Spencer slurred. “So nice.”
It was literally the least Ryder could do, but he hummed his agreement anyway and steered Spencer back to the bedroom.
It was bigger than the one in their last apartment.
Spencer had graduated last summer and found work in Phoenix, and the three of them had decided to rent a house together off campus.
It was a two-bedroom, too, which meant one of the bedrooms had been converted into a half office, half workout room, a boon given Spencer’s hectic work schedule and Ash’s demanding engineering study load.
Ryder laid Spencer down beside Ash, then unwrapped one of the protein bars and gave it to him.
Spencer managed to chew half of it before he fell asleep with his mouth hanging open and the bar still in his hand.
Ryder carefully removed it and grabbed a fresh blanket from the closet, covering Spencer with it.
Otherwise, he’d get cold and cranky without Ryder there to hold him.
Ryder turned to check on Ash, only to find him wide awake and staring at Ryder with red-rimmed eyes. “Sticky,” he groaned unhappily.
Ryder swept Ash’s curls back from his forehead with a conciliatory grunt. “Shower?”
Ash nodded and rose gingerly from the nest. He looked just as wrecked as Spencer, and his curls had been stiff under Ryder’s hand, all crunchy from dried sweat.
And Ryder must not have been hiding his overwhelming smugness about all that well enough, because Ash grimaced pointedly at him.
“You wanna shower alone?” Ryder asked by way of apology.
“No,” Ash grumbled. “You get to wash my back, fucking horny menace.”
Ryder wasn’t going to argue with that. It soothed his instincts to be able to pet and care for his mates after a rut. He’d do the same with Spencer after the other alpha slept off a little more of his fatigue.
Ryder started with Ash’s hair under the hot spray of the shower, working a lather into the omega’s abused curls. Ash held himself steady under Ryder’s hands, though he kept his eyes closed and his stance loose.
When Ash’s hair was washed and conditioned, Ryder quickly soaped himself up and rinsed under the spray, then returned to Ash. He slowly soaped up Ash’s slender arms and chest, kneading as he went, trying to soothe the ache Ash was no doubt feeling in his muscles.
Ash groaned lightly, and Ryder’s dick filled predictably at the sound, but he pushed the arousal aside, focusing on his task.
The arousal of rut didn’t always leave his body right away, but that didn’t mean his attentions would be welcome.
He turned Ash around and soaped up his back, then down to Ash’s ass.
Ryder tried to keep his touch quick and perfunctory there, but he was stalled by a slippery substance between Ash’s cheeks.
Fresh slick.
Ryder glanced over Ash’s shoulder to see his pretty cock bucking up in the air.
Well, then. This had happened during Ryder’s last rut too.
With a second player in the mix, Ash didn’t necessarily have a chance to work off all the rut-induced hormones that helped an omega through what an alpha needed from them.
It was more of a balancing act than it might have been with only two people.
Not that any of them were complaining.
Ryder traced the seam of Ash’s cheeks with gentle fingers. “You want me to handle it or ignore it?”
Ash gave a sleepy sigh and widened his stance. “You should fuck me, I think. But slow.” He glared over his shoulder. “And if you knot me right now, you’re dead.”
Ryder smirked down at him. “Wouldn’t dream of it, bright eyes.”
Ash set his hands on the shower wall and leaned forward, pushing his ass back. Ryder thumbed his cheeks apart. Ash’s hole was predictably pink and puffy, but not anything to be concerned about.
Ryder gave himself a few strokes and notched the head of his cock at Ash’s entrance. He pressed in without ceremony, groaning at the feel, wet and a little loose, as welcoming as a hot mouth.
Ash let out a harsh breath and raised his hips in a silent demand for Ryder to get moving.
Ryder kept it slow and steady, as ordered, running his hand along the knobs of Ash’s arched spine as he drove into him. Ash’s rich marshmallow scent filled the steamy room, and Ryder drowned in it with pleasure.
“You want my hand on your dick?” he asked.
Ash shook his head. “No. I’ll get there. Just keep going.”
Not a fucking problem. It was a treat to fuck Ash like this after the fog of rut, to be able to feel everything so clearly. Ryder reveled in Ash’s warmth and wetness, the way his inner walls clenched and released against Ryder’s cock with every thrust.
When Ash’s breaths quickened, Ryder used a hand to hitch Ash’s leg up and forward, trusting his omega to keep his balance with his hands against the shower wall.
Ash moaned deeply. “Fuck yes. Right there. Don’t stop.”
Ryder wouldn’t dare. He could feel the telltale heat pooling in his spine, his balls drawing high and tight, but he held his release back. He wouldn’t blow until Ash was ready.
It didn’t take long. With the new angle and the depth of Ryder’s thrusts, Ash was soon whining and gasping and finally crying out, clenching around Ryder’s dick so hard he was lucky it didn’t break.
Ryder kept fucking him through it, his strokes coming shorter and faster until he finally let go with a desperate groan and shuddered, pulling Ash back against him as he filled him up all over again.
Ryder’s knot stayed down, which was unsurprising after a thorough rut. Ryder’s life would be spared, at least this time around.
He withdrew carefully and soaped a trembling Ash back up, cleaning him off again with perfunctory care.
“Better?” he asked quietly.
“Mm.”
Ash turned around in Ryder’s arms and caught Ryder’s mouth in a surprisingly sweet kiss. Ryder tightened his hold, accepting the affection gratefully.
When Ash pulled back, his amber eyes were intent. “Love you.”
Ryder smiled. It was a welcome side effect to how verbal they both were with Spencer, that Ash said the words a little easier and more often now. “Always, bright eyes. Always.”
Ash pulled them both back under the spray, letting the water warm them. “Good thing Spencer’s ruts are in the summer,” he said lightly. “One right after the other and I’d have to kill you both.”
Ryder laughed. It was true enough, although Spencer’s ruts tended to be a different beast entirely. There was an almost frantic edge to them, but without the possessive dominance Ryder displayed.
It was touch Spencer needed when he was in the fog of rut.
From both of them, as much as possible, in whatever way he could get it.
He predictably knotted Ash eagerly and often, but he also—less predictably—allowed Ryder inside him over and over, coming so hard from getting fucked he would burst into tears.
And whenever he passed out in between waves, it was always sandwiched between Ash and Ryder, with as much skin contact as they could provide.
“You ready?” Ash asked, breaking Ryder out from his thoughts.
Ryder nodded, and Ash turned off the water. They both toweled off and dressed in underwear, heading to the kitchen together.
“Sit,” Ryder ordered when it seemed like Ash was going to try to help at the stove. Ash might not have been as exhausted as Spencer, but he still needed rest and sustenance. “I’ll make the coffee.”
Ash’s eyes gleamed at the offer, not that it should have come as a surprise. He was always allowed a cup after a rut or a heat. If Ryder didn’t know exactly how sweetly needy Ash got during said ruts and heats, he might have thought the coffee was Ash’s favorite part of the whole ordeal.
Either way, it meant Ash sat obediently while Ryder got things ready for a hearty, postrut breakfast. Ryder had his own fatigue to contend with—they’d definitely be taking a three-way nap on the couch later—but his movements came easy, a sense of deep satisfaction running through him.
Maybe it was the rut hormones working through him still, but more likely it was the two men in his home letting him care for them so nicely.
It was Spencer, still sleeping soundly at Ryder’s orders. And it was Ash, waiting impatiently to be served. Ryder had them both here, well loved and cared for in the ways that worked best for them.
It wasn’t always simple with the three of them. Ash’s temper could rage, Spencer’s insecurities could rise, and Ryder could retreat into his head more than he should. But they’d learned how to talk to each other, how to soothe and reassure and balance space with closeness.
And who the fuck wanted simple anyway, when the alternative was something so damn special?
It was just like Ryder had told Damon a year ago, truer now than ever: Ryder really did have everything he needed.
They all did.
The end.